Air Force's Huge Oracle Project Still Struggling

A massive Oracle ERP project being conducted by the U.S. Air Force is still experiencing difficulties, with the Air Force deciding to toss out some completed work as part of a restructuring plan that will be announced soon.

As part of a restructuring plan to be announced soon, the U.S. Air Force is expected to scrap pieces of a massive Oracle ERP deployment that has experienced difficulties since it was launched in 2005.

Dubbed the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS), the project was supposed to replace more than 200 systems. In October 2010 , the U.S. Government Accountability Office said its total estimated costs, originally around $3 billion, had grown to over $5 billion.

In October 2011, the Air Force said it had begun a "strategic reassessment" of the entire program and was considering several options.

More recently, the ECSS Communication Office said that "an announcement detailing program restructuring is imminent" and a "refocusing of ECSS capabilities will result."

This version of this story was originally published in Computerworld's print edition. It was adapted from an article that appeared earlier on Computerworld.com.